Distiller for water?

[catbirdgirl]

Anyone get a home distiller for water? What do you think, what model do you use?

[edfreeman]

I have one of those under sink reverse osmosis filtration systems for drinking water you can get off Amazon. Makes purified water for the water cooler, same stuff you can buy in the front of your local Lowe's. I installed a bypass in front of the last filter, a "re-mineralization filter" that adds those healthy minerals back for flavor and such. With the bypass, I get the pure reverse osmosis water, everything is filtered out, as good as distilled.
Wouldn't be worth it for the 89 cents per gallon of distilled water in the local grocer, of course, but since I had the system for the $7-10 per week of drinking water anyway, for a "T" and a valve, it worked out.

[chunkyfrog]

Reverse osmosis does not remove calcium,
but I am sure it makes tasty drinking water.
I need to keep the crud out of my cpap tank.
Only distilled water can do that.
My old Kenmore tabletop distiller is "still" chugging away.
When it dies, the bullfrog can rig a DIY solution,
like his dad did in captivity to keep the krauts flush with good vodka.
He may well have helped win WWII.

[K5MOW]

Reverse osmosis does not remove calcium,
but I am sure it makes tasty drinking water.
I need to keep the crud out of my cpap tank.
Only distilled water can do that.
My old Kenmore tabletop distiller is "still" chugging away.
When it dies, the bullfrog can rig a DIY solution,
like his dad did in captivity to keep the krauts flush with good vodka.
He may well have helped win WWII.

Cool

[Okie bipap]

Look at the cost of distillers on line, then compute how long it would take for it to pay for itself based on the cost of distilled water where you live. I currently pay 79 cents a gallon which lasts us a little over a week, which means two years supply of distilled water costs around $79. When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

[chunkyfrog]

My distiller was a catalog return, that we scored from the clearance store
for a tenth of the original price.
A great deal, but accompanied by an entire pickup-load of "bargains"
the bullfrog paid a couple hundred bucks for.

[Dog Slobber]

When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

[chunkyfrog]

When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

Electric rates vary widely throughout the country.
Know how much you are paying per kwh, and how hard your water supply is.
Our local electricity is relatively cheap, while our water is horribly hard.
The Kill-a-Watt device can be programmed with local water fees; we got about 12 cents per gallon.
Break even on our $20 unit was under a year.
Not everybody will do it for the money, but for convenience.

[zonker]

When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

either that or use soclean on it.

[palerider]

When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

either that or use soclean on it.

*SLAP*

[zonker]

When you factor in the cost of electricity to run the distiller and cleaning supplies to de-lime it periodically, I didn't think it was worth the cost.

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

either that or use soclean on it.

*SLAP*

NYUCK NYUCK NYUCK

[edfreeman]

Reverse osmosis does not remove calcium,
but I am sure it makes tasty drinking water.
I need to keep the crud out of my cpap tank.
Only distilled water can do that.
My old Kenmore tabletop distiller is "still" chugging away.
When it dies, the bullfrog can rig a DIY solution,
like his dad did in captivity to keep the krauts flush with good vodka.
He may well have helped win WWII.

Reverse Osmosis will generally remove salt, manganese, iron, flouride, lead, and calcium (Binnie et. al., 2002).

https://www.iwapublishing.com/news/reve ... king-water

I can tell you that my Amazon RO system reduces the TDS of my tap water from 150ppm to 2ppm. Distilled water should test at 0ppm, of course, but the RO system is essentially "dissolved solid free" water. I know this from testing with my Amazon TDS meter. (yes, I have a problem, according to my Amazon Prime account).
The "post-filter" restores some Calcium and other "healthy" minerals, with a TDS of about 25ppm. I bypass that filter for the CPAP water. I've put 2 gallons of it through the machine with no cleaning of the tank, and there's been zero deposits. The bypass was cheap to add, as well.
That being said, it isn't cost effective by any stretch of the imagination to use this for just CPAP water, but if you use bottled water for drinking/cooking and stuff, the system can save money for that in the long run (payback for me was 6-8 months).

[ChicagoGranny]

Here's a handy tip to reduce the need to clean and descale distillers. Instead of using tap water, fill them with distilled water.

either that or use soclean on it.

You guys are forgetting the intelligence level of some who post here, nevermind the ones who just read here without joining.

[chunkyfrog]

As an experiment a couple years ago, I ran 2 gallons of reverse osmosis water
through my heated humidifier, and it left a a powdery white film in the bottom of my tank.
(About the same as untreated tap water, but not quite as fast)
Distilled water never does that--so I use what works.
Have fun de-liming!
RO systems have been marketed in MLM schemes--BEWARE of the cult!

[edfreeman]

As an experiment a couple years ago, I ran 2 gallons of reverse osmosis water
through my heated humidifier, and it left a a powdery white film in the bottom of my tank.
(About the same as untreated tap water, but not quite as fast)
Distilled water never does that--so I use what works.
Have fun de-liming!
RO systems have been marketed in MLM schemes--BEWARE of the cult!

Then it very likely had a remineralizer filter, very common for drinking water systems. If I were to use that water from my system, I'd expect deposits eventually. But I'm not, remineralizer is bypassed. RO water taken straight downstream of the RO membrane is pure water, no contaminants, just like distilled water.
But, once again, I'm not advocating a purchase of such a device for the purpose of making CPAP water, it'll never ever pay for itself with $0.89 gallons of distilled water on the grocer's shelves. Just saying for those that have a drinking water RO system (or those that have water coolers for those $5 bottles), there is a way to get pure water for the CPAP use and save a few bucks.